Youthful Mistakes
by Lavender and Hay
Summary: Anna, Daisy and Gwen wonder why Miss O'Brien and Mrs Hughes never seem to get on; and Mrs Patmore explains why.
1. Chapter 1

**Idea given to me by CrazyMaryT. Just a quick first chapter to set things up.**

"Oh, that flaming housekeeper!"

Sarah O'Brien's wrath could surely be heard right the way down the corridor.

"Keep it down, girl!" Mrs Patmore advised her, with a cautionary wave of the nearest wooden spoon to hand, "Unless you're after another telling off."

Though she was moderately curious to know what had occurred this time between the housekeeper and the lady's maid, Anna sensed it wasn't really worth the bother of asking. She was likely to receive a long- and probably unfair- rant against Mrs Hughes' person and few actual details; so she kept her mouth shut. Instead, she waited, listening to see if the details would come out of their own accord. But, no:

"Bloody housekeeper!" O'Brien's rage seemed to peak again- Anna half expected her to stamp her foot- but instead she turned violently and stormed out of the kitchen towards the back door.

All they knew for sure was that, going about her business Miss O'Brien had had an encounter with Mrs Hughes; the latter of whom had had a few very sharp words to say to her on a subject that seemed largely irrelevant. Nothing too out of the ordinary, except that the lady's maid was usually unpleasant and sarcastic rather than downright angry.

With her gone, the kitchen suddenly felt very quiet. There was a pause, then Daisy emerged from under the kitchen table.

"What are you doing down there? Foolish girl!" Mrs Patmore exclaimed.

With the sudden release of tension in the room, Anna felt compelled to laugh out loud, as did Gwen beside her. Both the relief of O'Brien having gone and Daisy explaining to Mrs Patmore that when she heard Miss O'Brien's raised voice, she simply jumped into the nearest shelter had them quite nearly in hysterics.

"Why does she hate Mrs Hughes so much?" Daisy wanted to know, addressing Mrs Patmore as she was most likely to have any idea.

"Or is it the other way round?" suggested Gwen, "Mrs Hughes doesn't seem to keen on Miss O'Brien either."

"But Mrs Hughes is fair," Anna pointed out to them, "She doesn't dislike people without a good reason to."

All wanting to know the reason, the three of them now turned back to Mrs Patmore. The cook looked up from her baking- aware that she was under scrutiny.

"Oh, it goes back a long way," she informed them, "None of you'll remember."

They waited to see if any more was going to be said, but nothing was.

"No, we don't Mrs Patmore," Anna told her, "That's why we're asking you."

With a sigh, Mrs Patmore put down the bread she was kneading. Taking this as a good omen, the three of them edged that bit closer to the large kitchen table.

"Well, they haven't always hated each other," Mrs Patmore informed them in hushed tones, "But you're damned if you can get either of them to admit to it. It all started about three months after Sarah first started working here."

"What happened?" asked Daisy- her countenance one of utter intrigue.

"Then, Sarah went a bit too far. She wasn't to know mind you, like I said, she was new. But she did something that in old Hughsie's book was going that bit too far."

Perhaps it was just the effect of Mrs Patmore enjoying the attention and trying to entice them to listen on; but Anna was dying to hear the next thing to be said.

"What?" Daisy whispered.

Mrs Patmore smirked.

"She set her cap at Mr Carson."

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	2. Chapter 2

It certainly occurred to Anna that the cook might just be winding them up. The looks on their faces at that revelation must have been worth more than a king's ransom. Obviously taking in their expressions, Mrs Patmore smiled with the air of authority that quickly comes to someone who holds coveted information.

"I'm not asking you to believe me, I'm just telling it as I know," she informed them.

"Mr Carson?" evidently Daisy was having difficulty too, "But he must be an 'undred years old."

"Not quite that, Daisy," Gwen remarked. She had actually taken a seat and was waiting for Mrs Patmore to resume her tale. Anna thought that might be a good idea and followed her example.

"Well, this was ten years ago, wasn't it?" the cook explained, "And he hasn't always been past it. There was a time when he turned quite a few heads."

She said that with rather too much of an appreciative glint in her eye. Anna cleared her throat a little.

"O' course, mine was never one of 'em," she added hastily, "Though I don't think the same could be said for Elsie Hughes."

"Mrs Hughes!"

"Hush, girl, or you'll have us all in bother with her as well as Sarah. Well, you know what they're like," she turned to Anna and Gwen, "I'm sure you won't deny that you've wondered on the odd occasion if they were... Well, it's always been like that; as long as I've known them, anyway."

It wasn't too hard to imagine, Anna thought, and it was true; more than once she'd found herself wondering if there wasn't more to the infamous Carson-Hughes working relationship than they let on.

"So," Mrs Patmore continued, engaging their attentions once more, "Along comes Sarah with that flaming attitude of hers- doesn't care what she's told- has all of these foolish notions of finding romance and being able to leave service."

That, Anna did find hard to believe. Mrs Patmore could have been just as well describing Daisy as Miss O'Brien.

"I know it's hard to imagine," Mrs Patmore conceded, "But just try to go along with it. Anyway, here comes young Sarah- nicely lovelorn over nobody in particular- waiting to be whisked off her feet by the first chap to come along."

"And it was Mr Carson?" Gwen prompted her, only a little incredulously.

"Soon as she clapped eyes on him, I would have said," Mrs Patmore informed them- an expression of smugness that would have put Lady Violet to shame on her features.

By now they were all enjoying this idea far too much to allow for disbelief.

"What did she do?" Gwen pressed on.

"Who? Hughsie or Sarah?"

Either! What did it matter?

"Well," Mrs Patmore began, "It was just getting to the point of being ridiculous, when-..."

"I was not aware that the staff of Downton Abbey had subscribed to industrial action."

They all leapt up as they heard none other than Mrs Hughes' voice in the doorway, and by the looks of it, the housekeeper had not calmed down much since her prior altercation with Miss O'Brien. It would probably be taken as insolence if one of them were to respond "Well, we have."

"What, might I ask, was so interesting as to put a stop to work entirely in the middle of the day?"

Thank heaven, thought Anna, that I didn't take a fancy to Mr Carson myself. If what Mrs Patmore was telling them was true, she wouldn't like to have to face a rival in Mrs Hughes. When they were barked at to get back to work, they scarpered- all knowing what was good for them.

"I'll tell you after dinner," Mrs Patmore told her out of the corner of her mouth, as they dispersed frantically.

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	3. Chapter 3

Anna hoped it wouldn't look too suspicious when she and Gwen stole back into the kitchen after dinner, where Mrs Patmore sat alone at the head of the kitchen table waiting for them. Daisy was putting the kettle on.

"Go on, then," Anna prompted, once they had all been supplied with mugs of tea, "What happened?"

"Well, like I was saying, it was just getting to the point where it was starting to be silly. She was all of a daze, not concentrating on anything when he was in the room. Not working properly. Of course that only made old Hughsie all the madder, you know how she is about her blessed efficiency," the cook took a deep swig of tea, "Thing was, she couldn't prove anything at that point. She'll have had her suspicions, certainly, but all she knew for sure was that the lady's maid was being a bit ditsy."

"Well what happened?" Daisy asked, "Because now she's not suspicious. She just doesn't like Miss O'Brien."

"Hush lass, I'm getting there," Mrs Patmore told her impatiently, "Well, then, it was only coming on Valentine's Day, wasn't it?"

"Oh."

" 'Oh', is right," the cook nodded approvingly at Gwen over the top of her mug.

"What did she do?" Anna asked, giggling a little even before she found out- anticipating hilarity.

"I can't say for sure," Mrs Patmore admitted, "I dare say not a living soul alive knows except for those three. All I know is that on that Valentine's Day she was in the butler's pantry- uninvited, by all accounts- and when she came out she was looking pretty sorry for herself. I saw old Hughsie leave a little while later myself, but I stayed well out the way; I thought she would swing for the first person she saw, I truly did."

There was a silence around the table. Anna would have been willing to wager that every one of them was forming their own theory as to what had gone on. Well, Daisy certainly was, at any rate:

"What do you think happened?" she asked the cook.

"I wouldn't like to say," Mrs Patmore replied, sounding very much as if she would like to say but knew it was in her best interests in the long term not to, "Whatever it was it was enough to put Sarah in her place good and proper and it definitely helped old Hughsie make her mind up about the poor girl."

"Perhaps she sent him a card?" Gwen suggested weakly.

"Sarah wasn't _that _sentimental even then."

They were silent for another moment; pondering.

"Only one way to find out, really," Anna pointed out, smiling a little.

Mrs Patmore snorted in amusement.

"And which one would you ask?" she enquired, "Carson, Hughsie or Sarah? I don't personally fancy the idea of approaching any of them on the subject myself, but if you're feeling brave..."

"We wouldn't have to be so bold as to ask them outright," Anna pointed out.

"What, do you mean like if we just got one of them to let it slip out or something?" Gwen asked.

"I suppose so."

"And how exactly are you going to do that?" Mrs Patmore wanted to know. Anna almost expected her to add "Lord knows, I've been trying these past ten years!"

"We could have one of them things," Daisy began. They turned to her in great anticipation, unaware of how spectacularly it was to be crushed a second later, "Where you all hold hands round a table and ask questions, and see if any of them knocks."

Gwen slumped over the table, laughing.

"You great fool! That's for recalling lost spirits!" Mrs Patmore informed her, "If that worked for every question you wanted answered what would be the point of books? Just grab a pair of hands, and you're away!"

Daisy looked mortified at her mistake. Anna giggled at her expression while Gwen recovered herself.

"So you're willing to try?" Anna asked Mrs Patmore.

The cook looked at her uneasily.

"I still say you won't do it," she told her stoutly, "You're a better woman than I am if you can get so much as a word out of any of them."

That to Anna sounded suspiciously like a challenge.

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	4. Chapter 4

"We need a plan."

Anna gave her something of an exasperated glance from the chest of drawers where she was extinguishing the candles. Gwen had evidently taken Mrs Patmore's hint of a challenge very seriously.

"You sound like Daisy," she told her, getting into bed, "Do you really think you'll get it out of any of them?"

"I don't care if we do or not," Gwen admitted, "But I think we'd do well to outdo Mrs P on this one."

If it was possible that Gwen could be picking up Mrs Hughes' competitive spirit when it came to the cook, Anna could only surmise that that was what was happening. She had always enjoyed a bit of a challenge.

"Get one of them drunk?" Gwen suggested to herself, undeterred by Anna's lack of reply,"That's what my dad says: in wine lies truth. Or all three of them. But that would take more beer."

"You don't say," Anna remarked dryly, "And how exactly would you go about getting them drunk? They're hardly regulars at the Grantham Arms, well Mr Carson and Mrs Hughes aren't, I can't say I really know about Miss O'Brien."

"Mrs Patmore says she saw Mrs Hughes three sheets to the wind once," Gwen informed her, "She said it wasn't a pretty sight."

Anna smiled a little.

"And I'll bet that was twenty years ago, at least."

By the look on Gwen's face, that was probably a fairly accurate guess.

"I think you'd do better to leave it," Anna advised, turning over to put out the light, thinking that- with any luck- Gwen might have been persuaded to give up. Lady Sybil's stubbornness was obviously rubbing off on her.

"No, I think you might be right," she admitted, "The best way would be to create a similar situation, and see, like, if it makes any of them remember and say something."

"I highly doubt if you're going to pretend to fall head over heels in love with Mr Carson. Or Daisy and certainly not Mrs Patmore."

There was a knock at the door; a familiar knock to be sure. One that never quite waited to be admitted before entering. Mrs Hughes appeared in her dressing gown and slippers, hair drawn back into a plait.

"Aren't either of you intending to get up tomorrow?" she enquired, "I'm sorry girls, but I must insist; there's a lot to get done. Light goes out in five minutes."

"I'm sorry Mrs Hughes," Gwen apologised hurriedly, "But you see I was having to talk to Anna about something. She's got a bit of a problem."

No I don't!- Anna thought wildly- what on earth is she saying? She didn't like the look on Gwen's face at all. Or on Mrs Hughes' face as she surveyed her. The most irrational part of her mind vaguely wondered what Mrs Hughes would look like if she were three sheets to the wind.

"What kind of a problem?" Mrs Hughes enquired, sternly but not altogether unsympathetically.

Anna was about to answer that she didn't have the faintest idea when Gwen continued:

"I think it's best left till tomorrow. It's rather personal, like."

Mrs Hughes' eyebrows were raised with a vim and vigour that Anna had never hitherto known them to be. But fortunately she had been persuaded to leave them, reminding them:

"Five minutes."

Once the door was shut Anna turned to Gwen.

"What the devil was that all about?"

Gwen reached over and turned out the light.

"Well somebody's got to pretend to be in love with Mr Carson."

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	5. Chapter 5

"She said what?"

Mrs Patmore turned towards Gwen, looking at her with half admiration, half as if she could not quite believe the extent of her nerve. Or perhaps in this case they were both the same thing. Anna grimaced a little.

"She said I had a personal problem that I want to discuss with Mrs Hughes. To Mrs Hughes; so now I'll have to go and discuss it."

Daisy looked uncomfortably sympathetic.

"What is it?" she asked cautiously.

"Oh, pay attention, girl!" Mrs Patmore told her, "She hasn't really got a problem, she only said she had so she can go and quiz old Hughsie about what happened for us all!"

"Oh, right."

"So what are you going to say?" Gwen asked, while Mrs Patmore set about finding a dish of something that needed stirring so Daisy could occupy herself and keep well out of all their hair.

"I've no idea, you might well have told me before you got me into this!"

"Whatever you do, you mustn't let her find out what you're up to," Mrs Patmore warned her, "Or else she'll have all of our guts for garters, I can tell you."

"Just come out with it," Gwen advised, "And watch how she reacts."

"Just come out with what?"

The three of them turned- Daisy looked up- to see Mr Bates in the kitchen. Anna was suddenly at a loss for what to say.

"Anna's going to tell Mrs Hughes that she's in love with Mr Carson."

Trust Daisy to open her mouth first. There was another moment's pause while everyone took in what had been said and then everyone seemed to spring into action at once. Mrs Patmore appeared to leap at Daisy- though Anna hoped that was an exaggeration in her own mind- shouting something along the lines of "Fool girl, do you want to give the game away?" Gwen took Mr Bates discretely to the side- hopefully- to quietly explain what they were up to. His face had rather fallen at Daisy's words.

In the midst of all of this great commotion, Mrs Hughes chose to appear.

"What is all of this noise?" she demanded, "Mrs Patmore! MRS PATMORE! What might I ask has happened in this kitchen to prompt such a display?"

The cook was impressively silent for a moment- well, she couldn't very well tell the truth, could she? She fixed Mrs Hughes with rather a frightened stare- though they would never get her to admit to that- and, when she spoke, her mouth appeared to move of its own accord.

"Daisy was saying a lot of romantic rubbish to Mr Bates. I was telling her to stop before she made an exhibition of herself."

Anna nearly laughed aloud at this remarkable display of manipulating the truth. However she stopped herself, Mrs Hughes would know for sure that something was up if she laughed. She could see Gwen counting the bricks on the kitchen wall- holding it in.

Mrs Hughes appeared to inhale deeply. Anna imagined that she was greatly relieved at that moment that Daisy was not under her jurisdiction.

"Perhaps we'd better have our discussion now," she told Anna, gesturing for her to follow her.

Anna did so, glancing over her shoulder at the assembled crowd as she went. Mrs Patmore furtively was mouthing things nineteen to the dozen at her- advice, she presumed; Daisy was looking moderately horrified- probably at what Mrs Patmore had told Mrs Hughes about her- and Gwen had run into the pantry to laugh. In the middle of this stood Mr Bates, looking very much as if h wished he had avoided that kitchen that morning. She gave him a quick smile before she hurried down the corridor after the housekeeper.

…**...**

"So, Anna," Mrs Hughes sat down and gestured that Anna should do the same. Anna took the seat opposite the housekeeper; rather grateful that- if they really had to have this discussion- Mrs Hughes at least was willing to start it. The housekeeper did not look all together comfortable, Anna knew she found being invited to delve into other people's affairs rather daunting. "I imagine this trouble you're having might have something to do with Daisy. And Mr Bates."

Anna was about to deny it- wondering what on earth Mrs Hughes was talking about- then she remembered what Mrs Patmore had said to the housekeeper. She looked down at her knees, wondering how best to proceed. Mrs Hughes, however, proceeded for them.

"It can't be easy, I know, to find that a younger wo- girl," she corrected herself, "Has designs upon the same man as yourself. Though I don't suppose I should be really encouraging you on that score," she added pointedly.

Anna was about to open her mouth to deny everything, and set them back along the track of just coming out with it, as Gwen had suggested, but something stopped her. Then she affected a rather pained expression, hoping that it would not appear too exaggerated.

"Do you know, Mrs Hughes?" she asked, apparently looking for some kind of consolation, "Has it ever happened to you?"

She would have been getting her hopes up too high if she'd expected a pat on the hand, a pitying look and a heartfelt confession that she was in the same boat as Mrs Hughes had been. Instead the housekeeper fixed her with rather a steely gaze and told her simply;

"It might have."

There was a pause.

"Keep your head held high. Daisy's a foolish girl, she'll grow out of it. Just don't go getting yourself into trouble when she does," she warned.

With that Anna understood herself to be dismissed. She wondered how a meeting that was supposed to have been her getting information out of Mrs Hughes had felt rather as if she'd been led on a merry song and dance herself.

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	6. Chapter 6

"I knew it!" Mrs Patmore declared impressively, "I knew you'd get nothing out of old Hughsie."

"I did," Anna protested defensively, "She told me that a younger woman had been interested in the same man as her. Or she hinted at it anyway, and I don't think she would have done that if it wasn't true. She's not the sort to hint at something that's not true."

"But she didn't say that it was Mr Carson," Gwen told her apologetically, clearly not wanting to sound too critical, "And she didn't mention Miss O'Brien either." 

Mrs Patmore put down her mixing bowl.

"And even if she had, that would have been nothing we didn't know already."

It was really rather disheartening to have gone through this ridiculous charade for nothing, Anna thought, sighing a little.

"At least you got the worst one over for us," Gwen told her, "We'll try Mr Carson next."

"Aye," Mrs Patmore agreed, "If I know Charles Carson, he'll be more frightened of the idea that we're trying to find things out about him than any of you lot would ever be about asking him them."

This did not serve to make either Anna or Gwen feel any better with themselves. However, Daisy seemed to feel more confused than guilty.

"You think Mrs Hughes is the most frightening?" she wanted to know, turning to Gwen, "I didn't think there was anyone in the whole world more frightening than Miss O'Brien."

Gwen half grimaced.

"Have you ever seen Mrs Hughes when she's in a bad mood?" she replied, "It'd make your hair stand on end, especially if she was shouting at you to get on a ladder sharpish and dust the chandelier in the drawing room."

"But Miss O'Brien has that piercing gaze of hers!" Daisy insisted.

Mrs Patmore threw Anna a look that clearly said "Cor blimey!" as Gwen protested that Mrs Hughes could knock a man dead at twenty paces with one glance, and it wasn't only her who said that, Branson thought so too.

"I think we'd better just leave them to sort it out between the two of them," Anna whispered to the cook who nodded fervently. However, that did not last very long; a second later they were interrupted by a loud exclamation from Gwen.

"Who would you want on your side in fight to the death?" she demanded of Daisy.

"Gwen? Daisy?" Each of them turned around at the sound of the butler's deep vice from the door, "Who, might I ask, is going to fight someone to the death?"

There was a pause.

"No one, Mr Carson," Gwen told him, looking at her shoes, "We were being hypothetical, like."

"Yes," Daisy chipped in, "Like betting who would be the best to side with."

Anna caught the cook's look of despair; Daisy wasn't doing herself any favours. Mr Carson had drawn himself up to his full height, and was consequently unconscionably tall from their perspectives.

"I hope," he remarked with great dignity, "That none of you has been gambling. Except you, Mrs Patmore," he added, inclining his head towards the cook, "You must do as you see fit."

Anna was rather perplexed by that remark, concluding that he could have only made it to make Mrs Patmore feel as if her authority as cook was not being usurped. For her part, Mrs Patmore gave a look that Anna read as a very sarcastic "Charming!". Daisy looked horrified.

"No, Mr Carson!" she assured him frantically, "I promise you I've not been gambling in my life!"

He seemed a little softened by the girl's evident terror.

"See that you don't," he told her and turned to go.

Perhaps it was his remark to her that gave the cook the audacity to open her mouth, Anna would never know.

"Mr Carson," Mrs Patmore asked, "I wonder if you might do us the service of settling a debate?"

The butler turned back around, something like curiosity in his expression.

"I shall certainly try, Mrs Patmore."

"Who would you want on your side in a fight to the death?" she asked, as if it were a completely innocent question, "Mrs Hughes or Miss O'Brien?"

In the pause that followed Anna quite expected for them all to be shouted at for impertinence, or told simply to mind their own business. Mr Carson, however, only looked calm as he usually did.

"Mrs Hughes," he replied, "Without a shadow of a doubt."

As he made his was back towards the servants' hall, Anna wondered if that statement hadn't been made a little ruefully.

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	7. Chapter 7

**Sorry it's been an age.**

When they gathered around the kitchen table the next morning it was with the air of slight desperation, of clutching at straws.

"Well," Mrs Patmore surmised, "I don't think it would be very wise to ask Mr Carson again. Not after yesterday," she added with a very pointed glance at Daisy and Gwen.

Anna vaguely wondered if indeed _any _of this scheme could be called wise to any degree.

"We'll have to try Miss O'Brien if we're going to find anything out at all," she agreed, "Mr Carson will start to get suspicious if we ask him any more after what you said yesterday, and I think Mrs Hughes was pretty suspicious to start with."

There was a pause. Then Gwen said what they were probably all thinking.

"Who's going to do it?" she asked, looking towards Mrs Patmore for some sort of decision.

The cook seemed to take this, however, as looking for her to volunteer to undertake the task herself.

"Well, you can forget that for a start!" Mrs Patmore warned her in little more than a fervent hiss, "If I start asking Sarah questions like that she'll have very few qualms about telling me where to go, believe me!"

"I'm not going to do it either," Anna stated plainly, with unusual firmness in her tone, "It was me who went to see Mrs Hughes, and that was an experience I've got no wish to repeat in any way. Besides, if Miss O'Brien thinks I'm trying to make trouble for her, she might start on Mr Bates again to get back at me."

"And I would have gone to see Mr Carson if I'd got the chance," Gwen chipped in.

There was another pause, before three pairs of eyes swivelled to stare at Daisy- who was trying very hard, and in vain, to remain as inconspicuous as possible. Realising they were all staring at her, she stared back in a very frightened way for a few seconds, before completely crumbling.

"No!" she wailed, real fear in her face to the point of being alarming, "You can't make me do that, Mrs P! She'll eat me alive!"

"Oh, nonsense!" the cook told her, "She's not quite _that _vicious. Besides, you're the one of us most likely to get away with it." 

"Yeah," Gwen chipped in, "If any of us tried it she'd know we were up to something straight away," she continued, heartened by the approving glance of agreement that Mrs Patmore threw her as she turned to put the tray of scones into the oven, "If it's you she'll just think you don't know any better than to go sticking your nose in."

Obviously, Anna thought, Gwen wasn't trying to win Daisy over through flattery. She looked down at the kitchen maid, not without some sympathy. Daisy seemed to sense this and looked back at Anna rather pleadingly. Anna felt a pang, remembering how Daisy had said she would want Miss O'Brien on her side in a fight to the death; she must really think her a fearsome creature to favour her over Mrs Hughes. But, she thought, what had to be done had to be done: it was rather late to back out of this ridiculous crusade so far down the line and she had certainly done her fair share herself. The experience might prove to do some good for Daisy in some way; even if that good was that it made her value her life more.

"Just pretend you don't know what you're doing," Anna advised her gently, thinking that given Daisy's reputation that wouldn't be too difficult, "Then, at worst, she'll think you've gone mad and you're talking nonsense."

Daisy seemed to gulp heartily, staring down at the pan she was scrubbing with rather wide eyes. It probably didn't do a great deal to help her nerves that Miss O'Brien chose to enter the kitchen a couple of moments later. As is usually the case when someone who has just been discussed walks in, the kitchen fell into a very awkward silence.

O'Brien glanced around at all of their faces; which were probably too serious to convince her that all was normal- except Daisy who still looked terrified.

"You'd have thought someone had died in here," she remarked dryly to the cook, "Why all the long faces?"

Mrs Patmore gave a smile than was neither cheerful nor in any other way convincing.

"We were just talking," she replied, with an expression that was as forcefully vague as the comment.

O'Brien raised a dangerous eyebrow.

"About what?" she enquired.

Evidently, Mrs Patmore's excuse had not been developed any further than that and she simply looked blank for a moment.

"About Daisy!" Gwen almost shouted, as inspiration struck.

"Aye, that's it!" Mrs Patmore exclaimed, catching on, barely bothering to disguise her relief at Gwen's quick thinking, "And to Daisy, as well! She said she had something to ask you, but she didn't say what it was. Daisy!" she barked at the kitchen maid, who had just failed to make it out of the door on time, "What was it you were going to ask Sarah?"

Almost frozen to the spot, Daisy turned slowly back to face the room, not daring to look up when she had. They waited, quite tremulously in the case of Anna, Gwen and Mr Patmore, for her to speak, wondering how on earth Daisy was going to try to approach this without getting her head bitten clean off.

"I was just wondering," she began, her voice quivering and still not looking up, "If you were ever in love with Mr Carson, Miss O'Brien? Just as a matter of interest."

Anna felt her jaw drop. Obviously, Daisy had not thought that tact might have played a part in saving her skin.

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